Portal 2 vs Adoption, Round 1…Fight!
If you haven’t already seen the video I’m about to talk about, please check it out below because I’m about to vomit anger in it’s direction. Its embedded in this Kotaku article.
Ok, first off, stop it! Portal is not billed as an educational game, and its not a “kid’s” game. Sure, its rated E-10+ because it happens to not have anything terribly offensive it in, but its not like it has Muppets or Sponge Bob either. Anyone that spends 5 minutes with the game can see that it’s target audience is intellectual gamers of any age who like their games to make them think. To call it a “kid’s game” is a lie and need to be stricken from record. Like really, just like newspapers print retractions, WBTV needs to officially retract those statements.
Second, the offending interaction in the game was taken completely out of context of the story. Wheatley and GLaDOS were discussing Chell’s adoption status by stating that she has no parents and that its a bad thing. Last I checked, not having parents IS a bad thing. The family that got offended has an adopted daughter, and adoption effectively gives her parents. Strangely enough Chell’s situation is NOTHING like that of their Asian daughter. Chell was essentially abandoned and left with Aperture Science Labs. Her parents donated her to science, making Aperture Science her parents. In this scenario…I would have to agree with GLaDOS, in that it IS unfortunate. Aperture Science is not a good place for anyone to be stuck in, let alone an orphan.
Also, by that point in the game it had become well established that the personality spheres can be pretty mean to both Chell and each other. Lord knows what the family is going to think when their adopted daughter reaches the end of the game and the sphere TRIES TO KILL HER. What this proves is that those parents truly have no idea what they bought for their children and have not been watching the story at all. I want to say this VERY CLEARLY. That joke was not about adoption, it was about abandonment. It doesn’t reflect negatively on that family’s living situation and it doesn’t even paint traditional adoption in a bad light.
Let’s put it in different terms. If the joke went like this, it would have been fine. “Wow Chell, it sucks that your parents dropped you on the door step of the Death Star, you’re new dad is kind of a douche.” Trust me that kid has much harder things in front of her than Wheatley throwing half-hearted and (purposely) poorly worded abandonment jokes at a fictional character. At some point in her school career a careless boy or a vicious girl will use her adoption status as a weapon against her. Anyone with a heart knows how devastating that will be for that child. Its a reality that these parents obviously understand, and calling an irresponsible news organization about this trivial of an issue is not helping that girl’s chances of coping with future attacks.
Speaking of irresponsible news organizations, shame on you WBTV, you are supposed to know what is news and what isn’t. You’re supposed to do your research and get both sides of the argument before recklessly flinging poop at spinning fans. This piece was obviously produced as a shock piece, but ironically, the only things shocking about it are the blatant lack of both fact checking and journalistic integrity. Puzzle games don’t equal educational games and having been very close to the promotional side of Portal 2, I can say definitively that it was not and is not being promoted as an educational game. What that sounds like is something a Gamestop employee made up to get the parents to pre-order the game. Obviously, that’s pure conjecture, but you get my point.
E-10+ games are not automatically kid’s games. It’s not like Valve hand picked the rating for the game. If they’ve got a problem with the rating, they can take it up with the ESRB. Unfortunately, WBTV is too busy contacting the wrong parties for statements. Had they looked at the box and/or the manual for the game it’s clear that not only is it published by Valve (Valve is mentioned no less than 7 times on the box), but they also have a Customer Support contact section in the manual. What makes it worse is that instead of hiding the fact that you foolishly contacted the wrong party for info on the game, you accuse Sony of passing the buck! I dropped out of journalism school and even I know that’s not professional.
Finally, what the Staples family has done by adopting their daughter is beautiful. They’ve given a complete stranger a loving family and structure that is so greatly needed in today’s society. They are literally changing that girls life for the better. Its rare to find a family that is willing to share there home and life with an adopted child, and also qualifies for the process. They are to be applauded and if there is anyone in this country that could be called a saint, I would say families like the Staples would be in the running. What this news story proves is that even saints can be really dumb sometimes.
